Painless Interrogation
by Nehszriah
Summary: Part three of my OC project. Brigid, Greg and Jon meet a female police officer with a few questions about their friend Ruby's chilling murder.


This is a continuation of my Heroes OC Project involving Brigid McEwan, her abilites, friends, and her life after a mysterious note is delivered to her door. Previous installments are the one-shots Still Life (ID:3350569) and August 30th (ID:3357804). I do not own _Heroes_. Please read and review.

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Painless Interrogation

"So, what you're saying is that somehow, this is all happening for a reason?" Jon asked nervously. He looked out the window of the little white hybrid car at the Hiawatha National Forest, still green and lush from the summer heat. "Brigid getting that card in the mail, what was written on it, Ruby's dying... why?"

"I don't know," Brigid said morosely as she slumped into the back seat. She held Luke, her plush bear, in her arms.

"It might be," Greg added. "Plus, it has something to do with what Brigid can do."

"White girls get all the fun," Jon said, craning his neck back to smile half-heartedly at his friend. Brigid smiled back and shrugged while Luke waved merrily.

"That thing's just creepy," he shivered.

"At least you weren't attacked with a stool," Greg laughed.

"Yeah, but you thought I was crazy," Brigid retorted.

"I still do," Greg sighed. The car stayed silent from then on, until they reached the university campus.

"This is not good," Jon said as Greg drove the vehicle onto the campus of Northern Michigan University. The three friends had been there before, visiting Ruby when there was an important game that she had to cheer for. Instead of the green and gold that the campus was decked out with the year before, a strong gloom hung in the air that spoiled even the slightest pleasant thought one could have had.

"No, it isn't," Brigid commented, looking out the window at a small memorial. The pile of flowers and a teddy bear had been intended for the cheerleader from downstate, but a squirrel nipped at the daffodils in one of the bouquets casually.

"How can the entire student body have been effected by Ruby dying?" Greg asked. He turned into a parking space near where Ruby's dorm had been and parked the car. "Is it because she was a football cheerleader or something?"

"Must have been," Brigid said blandly. "Besides, Ruby broke the mold. She was a cheerleader and was _nice_, not some spoiled rotten whore."

"Now just because Ginger Kiger had something against you does not mean that she was what most cheerleaders were like," Jon said, mentioning a rather spiteful classmate from back in their high school days. He looked into the back seat and saw that Brigid was wearing a rather annoyed expression.

"Anyways," Greg interrupted, "we should go up and see if Ruby's dad is still there at her dorm. The investigators were supposed to have cleared out all the gore yesterday already." He opened the door and got out of the car while Jon and Brigid followed suit, the latter leaving the teddy bear in the car.

"If not, I'm sure Monica will let us in," Jon smiled, thinking about Ruby's dorm partner. They all walked towards the dorm hall and hoped for the best.

One the three friends entered, they discovered that even two days after they found out one of their closest friends had died, people were still standing around mourning her. The dorm hall that they were in had a large gathering space on the first level and that was where a whole gaggle of mourners stood and sat. A burly man stood by the door to the staircase, a grim expression on his face. He blocked the way for anyone that wanted to go up, but Brigid, Greg and Jon decided to chance it.

"Excuse me, may we pass though please?" Brigid asked sweetly. The man grunted and shook his head.

"Sorry. I can't. Unless you show me campus ID showing that you live in this dorm, I cannot allow you to pass. New school rules. You should have known them by now."

"Hey Jeremy, they're with me," came a voice from right behind the friends. They turned around and saw Ruby's former roommate Monica standing with a bag of groceries in her arm. She appeared to be emotionally worn, her dark brown hair lacking the usual luster and tanned skin showing signs of paling from shock.

"Oh," said the guard. "Sorry. You guys can go through then." He stepped aside and allowed the four to pass into the staircase.

"Thanks for that," smiled Jon.

"I figured you three would come up," Monica sighed. They reached the second floor and went down a corridor to her room. "I mean, Mr. Hanzewski came as soon as he heard. I figured the next would be you guys."

"Yeah," Greg said. "Ruby's dad called Jon at work and we came as soon as we could all get the time off."

"Well, Ruby always did speak highly of you three. I imagine that this hurts you guys and me more than it hurts the rest of the students at this place," Monica said, opening the door to her dorm. To the surprise of the visitors, there were two other people in the small, apartment-esque room. There was Leon Hanzewski, Ruby's haggard father who had raised her ever since her mother died when she was nine, though he was almost expected to be there. The one that was not familiar made Brigid in particular feel nervous. A blonde woman stood next to where Mr. Hanzewski was sitting. She was thin set and had a nasty scowl on her face.

"Oh, there you kids are!" exclaimed Mr. Hanzewski as soon as he saw his late daughter's friends walk in through the door. There was a distinct level of relief in his voice, as if he had been bawling uncontrollably for the past two hours and needed someone familiar for comfort. "I am so glad that you came!"

"These are the ones you were talking about?" the blonde woman asked Mr. Hanzewski coldly.

"Oh, yes. Jon, Brigid, Greg, this is the investigator that is being assigned to Ruby's murder..."

"Audrey Hanson," the woman interrupted, stepping forward and holding out her hand. She shook Jon, Greg and Brigid's hands and continued to talk. "So you guys are Ruby's best friends from downstate?"

"Yeah. We've all been friends since ninth grade," Brigid said. She then paused for a moment. "Do you have any idea as to who did this?"

"None," Audrey said, shaking her head. "That's why I've been questioning Mr. Hanzewski here for about an hour already and already talked Miss Kobalt over there to boredom last night."

"It was your job," Monica said from the other side of the room.

"Still, I need to ask you three some questions before you do anything else, got that?" Audrey stated.

"Can I ask a question?" Greg piped up nervously. Audrey looked at Greg for a moment to study his features before she spoke.

"Sure. Fire away."

"I know this might seem sort of weird, but how did Ruby die?"

"I don't think you should know that," Monica said. "It was bad enough coming back from band practice to find her."

"It's alright," Mr. Hanzewski said. "They can know. I am sure they won't tell anyone else."

"Fine," Audrey sighed. "Your friend is the latest part of a string of serial murders that have been happening around the country. There seems to be no motive and the methods are all connected by method of death. The murder before Ruby's was about a day before in the Seattle area, so I have no idea how he got here so quickly."

"A serial killer?" Jon asked. "You mean like Jack the Ripper?"

"A lot more terrifying than that," Audrey said grimly. "This guy's been taking the brains of his victims with him. There must be at least twenty corpses so far that have had the exact same wounds. The only difference between this murder and all the others were some abrasions on her back and the excessive amount of feathers found at the scene."

"Feathers?" Brigid asked. She turned so that she looked straight at Monica. "Doesn't Roz down the hall have a friend that trains falcons?"

"The second-string center on the football team, yeah," Monica sighed, taking a bite of some chocolate she had just purchased. "He was with me and a few of the others on the student assembly though at the time of the murder. Dane wouldn't do something like that anyways. The guy had a crush on Ruby."

"I knew that," Brigid huffed. "I just thought that he might be able to help with the whole bird thing."

"Well, these were definitely not falcon feathers," Audrey said, sounding quite flustered. "Now tell me, who was the last one to talk to Ruby?"

"That was me," Greg said, raising his hand. "I talked to her a week ago. We were going to visit her in a month and I was making plans with her."

"Did anything seem off during the phone conversation?"

"Nope. She seemed calm and Ruby-like."

"What about you two?" Brigid and Jon smiled nervously at the attention.

"I normally talk to her online," Jon said. "We instant message and stuff. Sometimes we chat with Brigid and Greg too, but I was the last one to talk to her online. Nothin' was out of the ordinary."

"She called me about a week and a half ago," Brigid said thoughtfully, trying her best to remember. "The only thing I can think of that was odd was that she said there were some birds following her everywhere, like in that Hitchcock movie."

"What kind of birds?" Audrey asked, curiosity peppering her voice.

"She didn't say," Brigid said. She looked over towards the window and saw that it was wide open, letting the cool breeze from Lake Superior wash over the occupants of the room. "Why? What kind of feathers were here?"

"Two kinds: white and black," the female police officer said darkly. The black ones we have identified as the kind that come from ordinary black crows, but the white ones are too large for any species of bird from around here."

"That is strange," Jon nodded.

"Now, can you tell me if Ruby had any known enemies? Were there people who hated her?" Audrey asked. The three friends were now worried at the questions that were going to potentially be flung at them.

"Not really," Brigid answered. "She had some fierce rivalries back in high school, but I doubt anyone would have gone as far as to hunt her down and kill her. She was an angel most of the time otherwise."

"Do any of you have enemies?"

"No," the three answered.

"Are you sure?" Audrey asked again, her voice quite stern.

"Positive," Jon said. Brigid looked at her friend and wished that the woman beleived him. Back before she had met both Jon and Greg, they had been involved in what was laughably called "gang activity". Neither of the young men enjoyed talking about it, despite the fact the groups they used to hang around were not even really considered to have committed a speck of hardened gang activity. All that had been done was trash talk, some fistfights, tagging and plenty of loitering. Neither had ever done a thing that could not have been repaired with a bandage or a gallon of paint. Still, both Greg and Jon stood before the police officer wishing that she would fail to see through their casual lie, despite their lack of the stereotypical delinquent clothing, posture and mannerisms.

"Are you two sure?" Mr. Hanzewski asked. "I though one of you was involved with some of that spray-painting stuff when you were younger."

"Mr. H!" Greg gasped.

"Former gang members, eh?" Audrey growled, tapping her foot as she waited for a rebuttal. Brigid gasped and waved her hands nervously.

"Not really, ma'am," she said, her accent slipping in panic. "Both Greg and Jon have clean records and have done not a thing worse than beating on a wastebin. Before I met them both, they lived near Van Dyke and Eight Mile. They're proof that rougher areas can turn out complete gentlemen."

"...and...?" Audrey asked. She kept her eyes on Brigid, but it was Jon who answered.

"She's not lying," Jon said defensively. "Greg and I wanted out, so we both got out a long time ago. I doubt there would be a single person to hold a grudge for that long. Besides, why would anyone come all the way up here for revenge when we both live down state?"

"Fine," Audrey snapped. "Still, it is going on record that both of you lied. Now, young lady," her attention now focused on Brigid, "where are you from? That is an interesting accent you have. I doubt you can learn to talk like that living near Detroit."

"Edinburgh," Brigid said sourly as she reapplied her acquired speech. "Moved here as a kid when my mother married an American."

"So you are not a citizen?"

"No, I am not."

"Do you have your Alien Card on you?"

"Leave her alone!" Greg snapped, stretching his arms out in front of Brigid. "We told you we don't know anything about this or who could have done it! You don't need to go learning about where we're from too! This is an invasion of our privacy!"

"Not at all," Audrey said, her expression stone-cold. "This is a criminal investigation. Any information collected in this process will be held confidential unless used in court. I doubt the fact that your friend here is foreign will not be an issue brought up in any point made to be proven."

"This is still invading our privacy…!"

"I am doing my job as a police officer!"

"Why you…!"

Brigid failed to hear much more of the conversation. Her mind was going quiet as she looked out the window with intrigue and wonder.

_There were feathers at the scene... black and white_… she thought. Without thinking, she opened her mouth and spoke.

"So what branch of the police force are you with?" she asked. Audrey glared at her angrily.

"FBI," she snapped. She glared at Brigid acidly, not enjoying the blunt question the young woman had thrown out for her to field. "Why?"

"I was just wondering," Brigid said, shrugging her shoulders. She went and continued to look out the window.

"Well, I can tell that I'm not going to get any answers out of you three soon," Audrey snapped. She was about to tongue-lash them again when her cell phone rang, disrupting the tensity of the air. Audrey groaned as she snapped the device shut after two minutes of complete silence.

"You three are lucky," she hissed, glaring at the three from downstate. "There's been another reported murder. I need to go, fast." With that, she stormed out of the room and out of sight, clearly flustered about her next assignment.

"What's eating her?" Jon asked, raising a curious eyebrow. "I mean, she looks fine and all, but she's got to have some sort of stick up her ass to be that mean."

"Ah, she just forgot to turn it on," Greg replied casually. Both guys began to burst into laughter when Brigid and Monica both decided to punch them.

"Don't be crude!" Monica snapped. "She said that Ruby was part of a murder chain! Do you realize how awful that must be for her to investigate!?"

"She doesn't have to be so grouchy about it though," Greg rationalized.

"Well, just think about it boys," Mr. Hanzewski said. "She's trying to find some killer. I doubt anyone but a demented psycho could be thrilled about that."

"You sure have taken this well Mr. H," Jon said.

"Well, it is not the first time I've had someone this close to me die," the man replied morosely. "I just wish I could have seen her one last time."

"Don't we all?" Brigid added. Everyone looked at her and silently agreed.

"Well, I have to get going," Mr. Hanzewski sighed, scratching his head lazily. "Do you guys want to stay with me while you're up here?"

"We were hoping," Greg smiled.

"Fine. Monica, Brigid, I'm going to take Greg and Jon back to the cabin. Want to join us for dinner?"

"Sure thing Mr. H," Brigid smiled weakly. Monica did the same.

"See you at six then," he said, walking out. Greg tossed Brigid the keys to his car and followed Jon and Mr. Hanzewski out the door.

"Poor guy," Monica said as she closed the door. "This has been a rough couple of days."

"Jon and Greg should be able to help," Brigid said, scanning over what was once Ruby's desk. "The two of them are like surrogate sons for Ruby's dad. I'm sure that it'll be just fine."

"I hope you're right."

Brigid and Monica held nothing near a decent conversation for a while afterwards. They silently packed away the groceries in a closet and then began to rummage through Ruby's things. It wasn't until Brigid accidently dropped Ruby's journal did anything of importance shine through.

"Oh, damn," she cursed. Bending down, she saw that there was an envelope sticking out of the pages, very similar to the one she had been sent days earlier. "Monica, how long ago did Ruby get this?"

"What the journal? I don't know..."

"No, this post," Brigid corrected. She held up the envelope with the eerily familiar writing.

"Only a couple days ago," Monica said. "Probably came from a freshman thinking he's smart. There was a note inside..."

"'_Save the cheerleader; save the world'_?"

"Yeah, Stupid really," Monica sighed. She then began to trail off into a series of speeches over how grossly popular Ruby had been. Brigid failed to take in a single word.

_This is no coincidence. Ruby was killed for a reason. I have to find out why._


End file.
